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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26793337">Blue Skies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cactaceae28/pseuds/Cactaceae28'>Cactaceae28</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canonical Character Death, Episode: s05e06 Timeless, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Missing Scene, Post-Movie: Star Trek Nemesis (2002), Temporal Prime Directive (Star Trek), Trektober 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:49:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>611</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26793337</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cactaceae28/pseuds/Cactaceae28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“If it was me, I might be doing the same thing,” he had said, but he couldn’t. Not while wearing this uniform.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Data &amp; Geordi La Forge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Trektober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blue Skies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Trektober 2020 Day 3: In Uniform</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once the conversation with the fugitives was over, Geordi reclined against the seat in his ready room and looked at the pips reflected back at him in the darkened screen of the monitor. Ocular implants had been making leaps and bounds in the last few years, enough that he was finally able to make out colors and recognize them without having to think about what he was seeing. He really didn’t miss the headaches the old VISOR model used to give him, back on his Enterprise days.</p><p>“Captain?” He looked at Namia, his recently-promoted First. She was somewhat naïve, though brilliant; still it was moments like this one that made him regret the loss of V’Ru’l, now promoted to his own vessel, and with him the absence of the trust in <em>Challenger</em>’s command team that they hadn’t had time to rebuild just yet.</p><p>“Have you ever… hated this uniform?” He said, regardless.</p><p>“Sir?”</p><p>“This uniform and this badge represents our commitment to the Federation and its ideals,” he clarified, “to uphold its regulations, to be moral and selfless and to defend our society. To put the wellbeing of others, even if we never know them, before ourselves. It is a lofty goal, and one that I have pursued without regret for decades.”</p><p>“Still,” he continued, “it is not easy, wearing this uniform. What it asks of us…” He rapped his fingers against the table and said, “Let’s just say, I understand where Mr. Kim was coming from when he decided to get out of it.”</p><p>Namia looked striken; not for the first time, he wondered whether she might be just a little too young for her new position; but experience would come, in time.</p><p>“Ah, it’s just a tired man’s ramblings, ignore me,” he pressed a hand lightly against his eyelids. After a moment of silence, he added sharply, “I will be out in a moment, Commander. Have them ready the tractor beam and… the photon torpedos, just in case they leave us no alternative.”</p><p>Namia assented with a respectful tilt of the head and she left without further discussion.</p><p>Geordi turned on his seat, looked at the open porthole and brooded.</p><p>The <em>Voyager</em> had been lost in the Delta Quadrant nineteen years ago. If Kim and Chakotay’s mad plan worked, that whole crew would have reached Earth fifteen years ago, and they would have done it carrying a message from the future.</p><p>If they could carry one message, they could carry two.</p><p>There would have been enough time.</p><p>There still was enough time. He would only have to contact the flyer, trade their safety from <em>Challenger</em> in exchange for one warning sent to the right ear.</p><p>To say… what?</p><p>Admiral, don’t assign that mission to the <em>Enterprise</em>? Geordi you fool, don’t open that forcefield, you are sending him to his death?</p><p>(And what would the price of averting that one sacrifice be?)</p><p>To be human is to strive to be better than one is. Geordi stood with a sigh, moving around the table to approach the porthole and directed his words at the stars.</p><p>“I know, old friend, I know. Starfleet regulation 150, section 2, paragraph 16” he said with a rueful tone, “but damn if a part of me didn’t wish to take what you would advise and throw it out of the airlock.”</p><p>He straightened the jacket of his uniform, brushed the badge with a hand and turned to go out to the bridge and do his duty. Still, an old song came to his mind and he left the ready room whistling softly.</p><p>
  <em>‘Never saw the sun, shining so bright… Never saw things, going so right…’</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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